'Cooking Boston' offers a taste of the city's culinary history

In the series “Cooking Boston,” panels of food experts explore the history and current state of the city's culinary scene.

By Jody Feinberg/The Patriot Ledger

Boston pride is widely known for its sports teams and Revolutionary and Abolitionist past. Add food to the list of reasons to crow, according to a new series at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

“We’re a relatively small city, but we’ve had a pretty significant impact on American culinary taste,” said Gavin Kleespies, the society’s program director. “We’ve changed how America thinks about food. It’s great to celebrate that and see the historical underpinnings.”

In the series “Cooking Boston,” panels of food experts explore the history and current state of the city’s culinary scene. The 90-minute programs are held in the wood-paneled library of the historical society’s 19th-century bow-front building on Boylston Street and are preceded by a wine and cheese reception.

The next program, “Eating Other People’s Food” on April 27, looks at the impact of Cambridge and PBS chefs Julia Child and Joyce Chen – two of just five chefs honored with a commemorative U.S. postal stamp. Stephen Chen, Chen’s son, and Alex Prud’homme, who co-wrote with Child her memoir “My Life in France,” will be panelists.

“America as a whole wasn’t embracing different kinds of food, and a lot of credit goes to them for introducing Americans to French cuisine and Mandarin cooking,” Kleespies said.

In “Where to Go?” on May 3, panelists will highlight little-known neighborhood restaurants, as well as the ones where reservations are a must. James O’Connell, author of “Dining Out in Boston,” and Corky White, a food anthropologist, are panelists.

“Sweet Boston” on May 18 will treat audiences to the prominence of candy and doughnuts around Boston, as well as the more recent interest in fair trade chocolate. In the mid-1940s, more than two dozen manufacturers made candy in Cambridge, where now only Junior Mints are made. Dunkin’ Donuts was founded in Quincy in 1950, and Tazza Chocolate in Somerville was an early proponent of supporting cacao growers.

“Ice Kings” on June 6 explores ice cream. Frederic Tudor, known as the Ice King, was the first person to sell ice harvested from ponds, insulate it, and ship it around the world. To promote his business, he also made ice cream. A century later, Steve Herrell made a premium ice cream with candies mixed in by hand, for which people stood in long lines outside Steve’s Ice Cream in Somerville.

“Boston has an unusual affinity for ice cream,” Kleespies said. “The rise of the super premium ice cream started here, and even on a freezing cold day, people will be eating ice cream and that’s not true elsewhere.”

Panelists include Judy Herrell, president of Herrell’s Ice Cream and the former wife of Steve Herrell, and Gus Rancatore, who founded Toscanini’s Ice Cream in Cambridge.

The final program on June 15 is a walking tour at Mount Auburn Cemetery to learn about and visit the graves of prominent Boston figures in food. These include Walter Baker of Baker’s Chocolate in Milton, William Schraft, Fannie Farmer and Harvey Parker.

Despite the snowfall on March 15, about 60 people attended the series’ first program, “Refined to Rustic,” which explored the change from European-influenced food in the early 19th century to Colonial Revival rustic food later in the century, Kleespies said.

“There’s a lot of people really interested in food and where it comes from,” he said.